LastFootnote

@abe_hikura Yeah. Hopefully my physical version will also somehow load a bit faster, but I know that’s wishful thinking. I may need to also buy a digital copy someday when the price is steeply discounted.

Nicely made quiz! Tough but fair.

@abe_hikura Hopefully load times will be faster too. Seeing the loading icon every time you go through a door or start or end a battle really wears on me.

It’s a remake of an NES game. Making it as snappy as the NES version should have been a higher priority.

For those who haven't played all the way through the game yet, you would not believe how slowly the bird flies. You could triple its speed and it would approach "reasonable".

Yeah, the new designs have definitely grown on me.

Not trying to derail the conversation, but just a quick PSA to anybody who somehow doesn't already know: All of SEGA's launch physical launch titles on Switch are Game Key Cards, meaning you will still need to download the entire game onto your system or memory card. Plan your purchases accordingly.

@abbyhitter Apparently this is not the case. Nintendo is not sending out review consoles for Switch 2 until "the last minute".

@sanderev The thing about that compatibility list is that it's not "complete" (and I don't think it's been updated since it was released). When I say it's not complete, what I mean is that over 75% of Switch games start up fine, but we have no idea whether they have issues during gameplay. "Further tests in progress."

@AnonyQ How is Master Key? It’s on my wishlist but I’m waffling on it.

I’m trying to finish Nobody Saves the World, which apparently has startup issues on Switch 2. And I’m also playing though Unicorn Overlord.

Nice! Always good to have another meaty RPG soundtrack on the service.

Speaking of, I’d really love to get Origami King’s soundtrack on the service sometime this year.

And yet they couldn't calibrate the meter so that 90% of the battery was "100%" of a charge? I know it's just a hangup for me, but it sounds terrible to never have it charge to 100%. Just call 90% "100%" and show me the remaining power as a percentage of THAT amount. C'mon, Nintendo!

@JohnnyMind
**pushes glasses up on nose** Um ACTUALLY, all controllers are peripherals, including the Joy-Con that come with the system.

peripheral
noun

Computers
—a device or unit that operates separately from the CPU but is connected to it, such as a mouse, printer, speakers, etc.
—a device or unit that is separate from a network’s host computer but in communication with it, such as a shared input terminal, printer, or backup drive.

@StewdaMegaManNerd The track record is not good there. Nintendo sometimes does merchandise tie-ins for anniversaries and they occasionally re-release old titles (e.g. Super Mario 3D All-Stars). But they have NEVER coordinated the release of brand-new games to anniversaries.

"I'd be lying if I said that a little more accuracy wouldn't go amiss"

@JimNorman This is hard to parse, but I think you have one too many negatives in here.

Huh, I thought they were already the top-selling Pokemon games. Maybe I'm thinking of "fastest-selling".

@Don I wouldn’t expect a Super Mario game this year. Nintendo often releases merchandise to commemorate game anniversaries, but not new games. They seem to have no interest in shackling themselves to that schedule.

@PikminMarioKirby And don't these games also have in-game ads? Or did I dream that?

Honestly the Game-Key Cards are a much bigger reason for me to buy fewer games than the prices. That being said I've had a rule since December 2023 that in order to buy a new game, I must beat two games in my backlog. That'll definitely be continuing. And the way things are going, it looks like I'll be buying way more games on my Switch 1 wishlist than fancy new Switch 2 games.

@Daniel36 Please stop equating a small patch update with an entire game download. It’s incredibly disingenuous. There’s an enormous difference between a patch that’s a few MB or even 1 GB and an entire 60 GB game. Stop pretending they’re the same.

@wiiware For me, Cursed Kingdom is just so much better than Dragon's Trap. Dragon's Trap is a remake and, as someone with no nostalgia for the original, I just couldn't get into it. But I completed Cursed Kingdom. Very nice platforming adventure.

As for a 120 FPS patch? I mean I'd install it on the Switch 2 and at least try it out.

I'm actually not expecting additional Joy-Con colors for Switch 2. Like, ever. The inside of the Switch 2 itself has those blue and orange colors so that you can tell where each controller goes. They're not going to want to mess with that.

They'll probably eventually have different designs on the black parts of the Joy-Cons, but as for the "rail" parts? We're stuck with blue and orange for the entire generation.

@johnedwin Sad but true.

@Lizuka I haven't played the Secret of Mana remake, but my understanding was that they updated all the graphics (I've seen screenshots) and music (I own the remixed soundtrack), but left the gameplay exactly as it was. And that's…the worst of both worlds?

I mean as a kid I loved Secret of Mana on the SNES, but as an adult it's painfully obvious that the graphics and sound are the best parts of that game. The gameplay mechanics are awful in at least three very important ways. First, the attack gauge. I used to defend this mechanic, but really it's just an awful band-aid. If you don't want characters to be able to attack foes as often, use knockback and invincibility frames. Second, action-adventure games should not have accuracy and evasion stats. If your weapon collides with an enemy's hitbox, that should be a hit. Third, if a game has a multiplayer mode, then opening a menu should not pause the game for everybody. That's just common sense.

The remixed soundtrack is uh a very mixed bag. Man they took some liberties with that music. A few of the updated tracks are huge improvements, but most of it is just OK and a number of the tunes are just butchered beyond recognition. That's not hyperbole. If you listen to the new and old versions of Together Always back-to-back, you probably wouldn't recognize that they're supposed to be the same piece. And they turned A Curious Tale into a call-and-response thing, but the the response portions are about 80% too quiet—it's barely audible.

@VrginX The more people buy them, the more standard they’ll become. So if you hope they won’t become standard, don’t buy them.

@TheMainMii It's totally not the only way, though. Any game you can get on a key-card, you can also just buy full digital.

@no_donatello Not to be a Nintendo apologist, but have they actual shut down the ability to re-download things you own on any of their systems? I thought you could still e.g. download all of your Wii purchases. You just can't buy new things on the Wii shop.

@Juanblue85 So just out of curiosity, why not just buy the digital version? You plan to sell it later?

@VeganHerpes Spoiler: they’re all the same price, at least in the US.

I’m not a physical diehard, as the article put it, but since I don’t sell or trade in games, there’s zero reason to choose a game-key card over digital. If I’m going to have to put this on my SD card anyway, I’ll take full digital every day of the week.

In practice, it means that I would have bought Bravely Default on day one for $50 or maybe even $60 if it were all on the cart. Instead I’ll wait until it goes on sale for $20 or less in a year or three. Thanks, Square-Enix!

@Jhena “This is one great Boktai day!”

@johnedwin Honestly I’m starting to consider it.

Dang I’m now going back to wondering why I bought a 4K TV recently when so many Switch 2 games top out at 1080p.

I wish I could have bought a 1080p OLED TV, but apparently almost nobody made those.

Possibly turning encounters off entirely is a separate toggle, potentially a single-button function for convenience. Then you could easily switch between 200% encounters and 0 encounters, for example.

Still not sure I’ll get this version though. I may buy it digitally, but will never buy a game-key card.

I want to support this, but I really don’t care about any of these games. Eh, maybe it’s time I tried out a Rune Factory game.

@Yoshi3 It's not that they couldn't. It's that they wouldn't.

The steady drumbeat of bad news from Nintendo continues. If they want to maintain customer loyalty, it sure would be nice for them to drop some good news soon. I'm being worn down.

@kfflscnt I don’t understand how this relates to anything I’ve said.

@intheShadows Awesome! Thanks for that. I’m feeling a lot better about it now.

@Kwyjibo_Kitsune I hope you're right, but I believe the Switch 1 UI is only 720p, so I'm not at all sure that the Switch 2 UI will be 4K.

@OorWullie I appreciate that! I think I need to just give it some time and stop worrying.

@Pickettfury Yeah, they are, but I still have a perfectly good 1080p TV (which I'm now using in another room, replacing an older 720p TV).

Honestly, I’m already regretting the 4K TV I just bought. When even Nintendo’s first two big games run at 1440 and 1080 and need upscaling, what is even the point?

At least I’ve fiddled with the settings such that Switch games look good to me, but dang. Buyer’s remorse.

@TwinFami If it were the unlockable content I cared about, then sure. For the Zelda amiibo, I don't really care about the paraglider fabric. I'd just like the statuettes. (But won't buy them at these prices.)

I don't care about Street Fighter at all.

@rjejr Yeah, I saw that at Best Buy a couple of days ago! I already have those amiibo, but for that price I was thinking of picking up a set for my son.

@Spider-Kev You sure about that? They're definitely all shipped and through customs already? And they're not making more and shipping them? I'm open to that idea, but I'd love to see your evidence.

Because $30 or $40 for one of these things isn't greed; it's shooting themselves in the foot. They are no longer affordable.

@N00BiSH It's "a lot of things" in the same way that tap water is made up of a lot of things. There are trace minerals and things, but it's overwhelmingly H2O. The $10 price hike for amiibo is "a lot of things", but it's 99.5% the sudden 145% tariff.

Like, I'm guessing the actual margin Nintendo makes off of these amiibo has plummeted even with this enormous price hike. If they'd passed it all on to us, it would have gone from $20 to $50.

@Tasuki Again, amiibo are manufactured in China and the US has a ONE HUNDRED FORTY FIVE PERCENT tariff on Chinese goods right now. This is Trump’s fault, period.

Bowser’s comment there means precisely nothing. It’s corporate-speak and has zero substance.